Xiaoshuo in the Taiping Guangji 1)

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Collection, Classiﬁcation and Conception of Xiaoshuo in the Taiping Guangji 1)

Xiaohuan Zhao

Introducing Remarks This paper aims to investigate the classificatory system of a genre of classical Chi- nese literature known as “xiaoshuo” 小說 (petty talk) in the Taiping guangji 太平廣記 (Extensive Records of the Era of Supreme Peace, hereafter as TPGJ) in 500 juan 卷 (scroll). This multi-volume xiaoshuo anthology was compiled during a period bearing the title “Supreme Peace and Nation Restored” (Taiping xingguo 太平興國, 976–983) under the reign of Emperor Taizong 太宗 (r. 976–998) of the Northern Song dynasty 北宋 (960–1127).2) I will start with a brief review of the historical background for the compilation of TPGJ and its textual history. I will then make an investigation into the organization and structure of TPGJ and analyze the rationale behind the establishment and arrangement of xiaoshuo categories in it. And finally I will draw a conclusion on the early Song conception of xiaoshuo as revealed through the xiaoshuo collection and classification in TPGJ. The earliest attempt at a systematic classification of xiaoshuo as a genre of literature independent from historical and philosophical writings was made by the Ming 明 bibliophile Hu Yinglin 胡應麟 (1551–1602),3) who divided xiaoshuo into six categories, although he admitted that there existed overlapping areas in his hex-classificatory scheme, especially with regard to the generic relations between zhiguai 志怪 (records of the strange) and chuanqi 傳奇 (transmissions of the marvellous).4) “In case of this,” he suggested, “classification should be based on what is most emphasized” [gu ju qi zhong er yi 姑舉其重而已].5) Some twentieth century scholars also state this principle, implicitly or explicitly, in their studies of traditional Chinese literature,6) as shown in Y. W. Ma’s categorisation of biji 筆記 [note-form literature] which is “mainly based on proportion.”7) What is said of the xiaoshuo classification by Hu Yinglin is even more true of TPGJ, which, with nearly 7,000 entries included in 500 juan, boasts the largest collection of classical Chinese fiction ever seen. Any attempt at a classification of this book will inevitably run the risk of overgeneralizing or oversimplifying due to its huge size and great variety of sources, styles and subject matters. In the light of this, I will follow the principle as adopted by Hu and Ma of classifying according to what is most prominent and dominant.

Chinese Renaissance under the Song The collapse of the Tang 唐 dynasty in 907 was immediately followed by a transi- tional period of internal division and civil strife conventionally designated as “the Five

1 Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms” 五代十國 until China was reunited under the Song in 960. The Song dynasty endured frequent military clashes with nomadic peoples on its northern frontiers ever since it was established, but this did not prevent notable prog- ress in cultural spheres, which “found no match in the preceding Han 漢 (206 BCE– 220 CE) and Tang (618–907) dynasties nor in the ensuing Yuan 元 (1206–1368) and Ming (1368–1644) dynasties.”8) “Having gone through several thousand years of evo- lution,” as observed by Chen Yinke 陳寅恪 (1890–1969), “Chinese culture reached its apex under the ruling House of Zhao in the Song dynasty,”9) which witnessed the “Chinese Renaissance” characterized by “the return to the classical tradition, the diffu- sion of knowledge, the upsurge of science and technology (printing, explosives, ad- vance in seafaring techniques, the clock with escapement, and so on), a new philoso- phy, and a new view of the world.”10) In Chinese literary history, the Song dynasty is best known for the golden age of the ci 詞 poetry11) and huaben 話本 fiction.12) The xiaoshuo tradition, which had its ori- gin mainly in Pre-Qin 秦 (221–206 BCE) philosophical, historical and miscellaneous writings, did not become a lost art under the Song.13) Rather, after the Tang, this genre of literature continued to be written and read and collected into anthologies and ency- clopaedia.14) Having suffered a short period of recession during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Tang Aancient-style Prose [guwen 古文] Movement led by Han Yu 韓愈 (768–824) and Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元 (773–819), gained momentum during the Song dynasty,15) and developed into an even more mellow prose style for students and scholars of later dynasties to imitate.16) The development of ancient-style prose writing, together with the rise of ci poetry, and huaben fiction, is the most distinctive literary achievement of the Song. However, the cultural prosperity and intellectual ferment of the Song express them- selves not only in the wide practice among scholars and story-tellers of classical-style prose, ci poetry, xiaoshuo and huaben fiction, but also in the establishment and expansion by the founders of Song of imperial libraries and institutes of learning. Most significant of them was the restoration on the old sites in the second year of the Taip- ing era (977) of the Three Institutes (San guan 三館),17) and the latter addition to the San guan of the Privy Gallery (Bi ge 秘閣), which was built as a private library for Emperor Taizong.18) Almost at the same time, the Directorate of Education (Guozi jian 國子監) was also restored to train aristocratic students through Confucian classics and prepare them for taking up appointments in the central and provincial government. The Guozi jian served not merely as the Imperial College to train high officials but also as the highest supervisory institute responsible for selecting, examining and printing books for the court and college.19) The Song dynasty also witnessed “the transition from the manuscript age to the age of print.”20) The woodblock printing technology (diaoban yinshua shu 雕版印刷術), which made its first appearance in the Tang dynasty, had come into common use by Song times.21) Running parallel to the development of printing technology was the great passion of the founding emperors of the Song for book collection, compilation and publication.22) In no more than 20 years, the imperial holdings of books rose significantly from 12,000 juan in the first year of the reign of Emperor Taizu 太祖 (r. 960–975) to 46,000 juan as a result of the transmission of a total of 33,000 juan from

2 the royal libraries of newly conquered states Jingnan 荊南 (963) and the Southern Tang 南唐 (976) and of the donation of 1,000 juan from court officials.23) Meanwhile, the number of engraved woodblocks kept by the Directorate of Education also enjoyed a sharp increase from no more than 4,000 during the reign of Emperor Taizu to as many as 100,000 plus in the second year of the Jingde 景德 era (1005) under the reign of Emperor Zhenzong 真宗 (r. 998–1022).24) The advancement in printing technology, the restoration and expansion of imperial libraries and institutes of learning, and most importantly, the political need “to allay discontent among the literati scholars from the newly conquered southern states”25) and “to make manifest the position of Taizong as the legal successor to the Tang heritage,”26) all made a grand-scale compilation of multi-volume leishu 類書 (categorized books) possible and necessary. In the Songshi yiwenzhi 宋史藝文志 (Bibliographical Section of History of the Song Dy- nasty),27) three hundred and seven titles are given as leishu, and the majority of them were compiled in Song times with no more than fifty dating from the Sui and Tang or earlier times.28) Among numerous leishu produced in the Song dynasty, some were relatively short and on restricted groups of topics, others longer than any which had previously appeared. The most influential of them are the TPGJ, the Taiping yulan 太平御覽 (hereafter as TPYL), the Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華 (hereafter as WYYH), and the Cefu yuangui 冊府元龜 (The Grand Tortoise of the Libraries and Archives, hereafter as CFYG), which add up to a total of 3,500 juan and are collectively known as “the Four Great Books of the Song” (Song si da shu 宋四大書).

Textual History and Current Editions of TPGJ The TPGJ in 500 juan was compiled under the supervision of Li Fang 李昉 (925– 996) mostly from unofﬁcial historical, anecdotal, miscellaneous, and ﬁctional writings.29) As recorded in the “TPGJ biao” 太平廣記表 (Memorial Submitted to the Throne on TPGJ) (dated in 981),30) this project got started in the third month of the second year of the Taiping era, and took thirteen distinguished scholars eighteen months to bring it to completion, but it was not until the sixth year of the Taiping era (981) that TPGJ was carved onto wooden blocks. The engraved blocks of this edition, however, was “kept in the Tower of Supreme Purity (Taiqing lou 太清樓) due to the lack of any pressing academic need for it to be printed.”31) Before long, however, this woodblock edition of TPGJ found its way out of the ivo- ry tower into the hands of people who either read it for fun or drew on it for inspira- tion, as vividly recorded by the Northern Song scholars Chao Jiong 晁迥 (951–1034) in juan 5 and 9 of his Fazang suijin lu 法藏碎金錄 (Collected Splintered Gold of Bud- dhist Canon) (prefaced in 1027), Wang Pizhi 王闢之 ( Jinshi 進士 in 1067) in juan 9 of his Shengshui yantan lu 澠水燕談錄 (Records of Casual Talk on the Shengshui River) (prefaced in 1095), and Zhang Bangji 張邦基 in juan 2 of his Mozhuang manlu 墨莊漫錄 (Casual Notes from the Ink Village),32) and the Southern Song story-teller/compiler Luo Ye 羅燁 in the preface to his Zuiweng tanlu 醉翁談錄 (Collected Talks of a Drunk- ard).33) The earliest bibliographical record of TPGJ is found in the leishu section of the Chongwen zongmu 崇文總目 (General Catalogue of the Imperial Library in Honor of Literature, hereafter as CWZM) compiled by Wang Yaochen 王堯臣 (1002–1058).34)

3 This book was also listed in the two most influential Southern Song annotated bibliog- raphies of private holdings, Chen Zhensun’s 陳振孫 (ca. 1183–ca. 1262) Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題 (Annotated Catalogue of Books in the Zhizhai Studio),35) and Chao Gongwu’s 晁公武 (1105–1180) Junzhai dushuzhi 郡齋讀書志 (Annotated Catalogue of Books at the Prefectural Abode, hereafter as JZDSZ). Both of them categorizes TPGJ as a xiaoshuo work, which is further referred to in JZDSZ as the source for two tale collections—the Luge shilei 鹿革事類 (Collected Accounts of Historical Figures and Events) in 30 juan, and the Luge wenlei 鹿革文類 (Collected Literary Writings) in 30 juan, which were compiled by Cai Fan 蔡蕃 towards the end of the Northern Song dynasty.36) All this seems to suggest that TPGJ enjoyed some circulation among scholar officials and professional story-tellers in Song times after the reign of Emperor Renzong 仁宗 (r. 1023–1063). As is often the case with earlier Chinese xiaoshuo works, no Song copies of TPGJ survive to date. Extant are about ten Ming-Qing 清 (1644–1911) texts, the most au- thentic and influential of which is the 1566 woodblock edition known as the Tan keben 談刻本 (The Tan Woodblock Text), printed by the Ming bibliophile Tan Kai 談愷 (1503–1568), who, based on a Song hand-copied text, made a close collation of all the transcripts of TPGJ available to him.37) This carved woodblock text serves as a master copy for almost all the editions of TPGJ in current circulation,38) including the modern punctuated Zhonghua shuju 中華書局 1961 edition, which will be referred to in the sections that follow in this paper.

Xiaoshuo Collection and Classification in TPGJ TPGJ has long been held in high regard for its preservation of non-official and un- orthodox materials, which may otherwise have been lost. However, this book is first and foremost a xiaoshuo anthology, although most of the cited works were conventionally classified as “anecdotes and miscellaneous records” (yiwen suoshi 逸聞瑣事).39) They were treated with contempt and carelessness, and hardly any of them survived in the original. Works cited in TPGJ date from pre-Han up to early Song times and amount to four hundred and more.40) The importance of TPGJ in Chinese literature lies not only in the preservation, but also in the classification of ancient xiaoshuo writings. With selections made from a great variety of sources of different periods of time and covering an extremely wide range of subject matter, it is a big challenge to the compilers of TPGJ to sort them into proper categories. Rather than mechanically follow classificatory schemes adopted in earlier leishu and xiaoshuo collections, they develop a more measurable and operable way of classifying the xiaoshuo genre. In this system, it is not schools of thought or sty- listic features, nor authorship or dating, but subject matter alone that counts as criteria for entry selection and classification. Accordingly, TPGJ is first divided into ninety-two major types by subject matter, and under them, entries are further divided into more than one hundred and fifty sections with subheadings attached to each section, denoting their specific theme and content, which shows strong influence from earlier leishu, particularly the Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林 (A Grove of Pearls in the Dharma Garden, hereafter as FYZL).41) But different from FYZL, TPGJ is essentially a collection of tales rather than a general assem-

4 blage of writings of various genres with the subject matter confined to Buddhism. In this sense, TPGJ has more in common with earlier xiaosho collections, such as Liu Xiang’s 劉向 (79–8 BCE) Xinxu 新序 (New Accounts) and Shuoyuan 說苑 (Florilegia of Accounts),42) Gan Bao’s 干寶 (?–336 CE) Soushen ji 搜神記 (In Search of Spirits),43) and Duan Chenshi’s 段城式 (ca. 800–863) Youyang zazu 酉陽雜俎 (Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang), in particular.44) Of all the five hundred juan in TPGJ, more than four hundred and twenty juan are devoted to accounts of the strange and supernatural, which reflects the dominant position of zhiguai over other genres of xiaoshuo.45) The zhiguai entries included in TPGJ cover an extensive range of subject matter, and are roughly arranged into four major groups: dao 道 (Daoism), shi 釋 (Buddhism), wu 巫 (shamanism), and guai 怪 (animism and antimism). Daoism as a religion aims at “obtaining the Way and attaining immortality” (de dao cheng tian 得道仙). Immortals are held high in regard and credited with various supernatural powers. To a Daoist practitioner, nothing is more appealing than to live as long as possible a healthy life in this world and eventually to become an immortal free of worldly cares. The Daoist way of life, especially their search for longevity and immortality, had helped it find favor with Chinese emperors ever since the Qin 秦 dynasty (221–206 BCE). With the support of the royal family of the Tang dynasty, who claimed to be descendants of Li Er 李耳, better known as Laozi 老子 the author of the Daode jing 道德經 (Classic of the Way and Virtue) and the founding father of Daoism, Daoism was firmly established as the official religion of the imperial court. Under the patronage of Emperor Xuanzong 玄宗 (r. 713–756) of the Tang, Daoism even obtained a superior position over Buddhism, and had since then functioned as one of the three pillars of state ideology/religion alongside with Confucianism and Buddhism in imperial China. Due to the great influence and popularity of Daoist hagiographies, TPGJ devotes the first eighty-six juan, as shown below in Table 1,46) to accounts of Daoist masters, priests, immortals, and practitioners with focus on their making and taking elixirs of life, exercising breath control and magic arts, going on a special diet for longevity and immortality, or retreating from the madding crowd into remote mountains or deep valleys to live as a hermit on dews and herbs. A check of the items included in the first 55 juan of TPGJ against the source books from which they are cited shows that this part is to a great extent a re-assemblage of accounts of Daoist immortals from such earlier hagiographies as Liu Xiang’s Liexian zhaun 列仙傳 (Arrayed Biographies of Immortals),47) and the Shenxian zhaun 神仙傳 (Biographies of Divine Immortals).48) Confucianism sees much of value in Table 1: Daoist Tales in TPGJ No. of maintaining a hierarchical social/family Juan No. Tale Category system, which requires deference and Juan 1–55 Immortals [shenxian 神仙] 55 obedience of the younger for the elder, 56–70 Female immortals [nüxian 女仙] 15 of the junior for the superior, of the 71–75 Daoist magic arts [daoshu 道術] 5 ruled for the ruling, and of the female 76–80 Masters of esoteric techniques 5 for the male. “Whereas Confucianism [fangshi 方士] often seems sternly masculine,” as Ebrey 81–86 Extraordinary people [yiren 異人] 6 observes, “Daoism was more accepting Total Number of Juan 86

5 of feminine principles (yin of the yin-yang pair)…”49) Accordingly, women are treated as, if not superior to, equal and complementary to men in line with “a (Daoist) cosmo- logical model that emphasizes the alternation and complementarity of yin and yang.”50) Daoism also distinguishes itself from Buddhism and Confucianism in that it does not favor a suppression of human sensual passion and sexual desire.51) Rather, in Dao- ist traditions, particularly the early Tianshi 天師 (Celestial Masters) and the later Shangqing 上清 (Highest Clarity), sexual intercourse is considered to be a natural means of striking and maintaining a balance between yin and yang energies and form- ing an immortal embryo. Sexual union is not only a union of female and male bodies but a union of their minds and souls as well. It comes as no surprise that women are often portrayed in Daoist literature as tender-hearted, pure-minded, beautiful celestial beings coming down from Heaven for a romantic encounter and union with men, which constitutes a most fascinating theme recurring throughout traditional Chinese zhiguai ﬁction. Tales promoting Buddhism are mostly found in juan 87–163, 356–357, and 375– 388, as shown in Table 2. In contrast to Daoism, Buddhists believe that life is nothing but suffering and the suffering is caused by desires. The only way out of this suffering world is to follow and practice in this life the Buddhist teachings, or Dharma, so as to enter the realm of nirvana, an absolute spiritual state free from incarnation and reincarnation. Reading and chanting Buddhist sutras is thus part of daily life for Buddhist monks, nuns and practitioners, as shown in numerous entries grouped under the subcategory of “Re- sponses as Retribution,” or “the Law of Karma” in juan 102–134 of TPGJ. The central message of karma is that one will get rewarded for doing good and get Table 2: Buddhist Tales in TPGJ punished for doing evil, and that the reward or retribution may occur in this life Juan No. of Tale Category No. Juan as a result of one’s behavior in his/her 87–98 Extraordinary Buddhist monks 12 previous life. The karmic effect may be [Yiseng 異僧] extended to other family members, and 99–101 Testimony for Shakya 3 even continue to be felt in one’s afterlife. [ 釋證] shizheng The karmic law of reward and retribu- 102–134 Responses as retribution 33 [baoying 報應] tion, as the most commanding Buddhist 135–145 Responses as manifestations 11 message, has been deeply rooted in Chi- [zhengying 徵應] nese mind, and makes its power felt ever 146–160 Predetermined lot 15 more through anomaly accounts of vari- [dingshu 定數] ous omens predicting the rise and fall of 161–162 Divine responses 2 people of all social strata from kings and [ganying 感應] dukes down to street peddlers and pros- 163 Prognosticated responses 1 [chenying 讖應] titutes, as shown in entries arranged un- 356–357 Yaksha [yecha 夜叉] 2 der the subcategory of “Responses as 375–386 Rebirth [zaisheng 再生] 12 Manifestations” in juan 135–145. 387–388 Awareness of previous life 2 In addition to Daoism and Buddhism, [wu qiansheng 悟前生] folk beliefs in wu and guai were also Total Number of Juan 93 widespread in ancient China. During

6 the Six Dynasties (220–618), there ap- Table 3: Shamanistic Tales in TPGJ No. of peared dozens of collections of tales Juan No. Tale Category about gods, ghosts, and spirits, as repre- Juan 216–217 Scapulimancy and rhabdomancy 2 sented by the , the 列異 Soushen ji Lieyi ji [bushi 卜筮] 記 (Arrayed Records of the Strange), 218–220 Healing [yi 醫] 3 and the Soushen houji 搜神後記 (A Se- 221–224 Physiognomy [xiang 相] 4 quel to In Search of Spirits).52) 276–282 Dreams [meng 夢] 7 As shown in Table 3, entries dealing 283 Shamans [wu 巫] 1 with shamanistic belief and practice ac- 284–287 Magic arts [huanshu 幻術] 4 妖妄 count for 112 juan in TPGJ and are di- 288–290 Uncanny tricks [yaowang ] 3 291–315 Spirits and deities [shen 神] 25 vided into thirty-one categories ranging 316–355 Ghosts [gui 鬼] 40 from “ghosts and demons,” “souls and 358 Souls and spirits [shenhun 神魂] 1 spirits,” “gods and deities,” and “demons 359–367 Uncanny grotesques [yaoguai 妖怪] 9 and monsters,” to “dreams,” “witch- 368–373 Uncanny spirits [jingguai 精怪] 6 craft,” and “miracles and mysteries.” 374 Spiritual anomalies [lingyi 靈異] 1 Apart from juan 216–217, and 276–374, 389–390 Barrows and graves [zhongmu 塚墓] 2 391–392 Tomb inscriptions [ 銘記] 2 most items in juan 218–224 and 389–392 mingji Total Number of Juan 110 of TPGJ may also be classified as belonging to this category. Animism and animatism also feature prominently in TPGJ, with a total of eighty- six juan given to anomaly accounts of a wide range of natural and supernatural beings and happenings from dragons, birds, beasts, and flowers to thunder, rain, and water, as shown in Table 4. As seen from the tables above, zhiguai entries make up the bulk of TPGJ with a total of 376 juan given to accounts of the strange and supernatural, accounting for 75% of the 500-juan text of this xiaoshuo anthology. In contrast, entries recognised Table 4: Animistic and Animatistic Tales in TPGJ as zhiren 志人 (tales about men and the No. of Juan No. Tale Category world) and bowu 博物 (knowledge- Juan broadening accounts) add up to 115 393–395 Thunder [lei 雷] 3 juan, which, together with nine juan of 396 Rain [yu 雨] 1 “miscellaneous and anecdotal biogra- 397 Mountains [shan 山] 1 398 Stones [shi 石] 1 phies” [Za zhuanji 雜傳記], constitute the 399 Water [shui 水] 1 remaining part of the whole text, as 400–405 Treasures [bao 寶] 6 shown in Table 5 and Table 6. 406–417 Herbaceous and woody plants 12 The last but not least is a group of sto- [caomu 草木] ries arranged into juan 484–492 under 418–425 Dragons [long 龍] 8 the heading of za zhuangji as shown in 426–433 Tigers [hu 虎] 8 434–446 Domestic and wild animals 13 Table 6. [chu shou 畜獸] Although this group accounts for the 447–455 Foxes [hu 狐] 9 smallest number of juan as compared 456–459 Snakes [she 蛇] 4 with items of other categories, there are 460–463 Poultry and birds [qin niao 禽鳥] 4 some best written and most influential 464–472 Aquatic animals [shuizu 水族] 9 classical Chinese stories from Tang Chi- 473–479 Insects [kunchong 昆蟲] 7 na in it. Items categorized as “za zhuan” Total Number of Juan 87

7 Table 5: Tales about Men and the World No. of No. of Juan No. Tale Category Juan No. Tale Category Juan Juan 164 Celebrities [ming xian 名賢] 1 215 Arts of reckoning [suanshu 算術] 1 165 Incorruptibility an frugality 1 225–227 Handicraft and technology 3 [lianjian 廉儉] [jiqiao 伎巧] 166–168 Spirited in responsibility [qiyi 氣義] 3 228 Gambling and games [boxi 博戲] 1 169–170 Understanding men [zhiren 知人] 2 229–232 Rare treasures [qiwan 器玩] 4 171–172 Subtle scrutinising [jingcha 精察] 2 233 Alcohol drink [jiu 酒] 1 173–174 Paragons of eloquence 2 234 Food [shi ⻝] 1 [junbian 俊辯] 235 Making friends [jiaoyou 交友] 1 175 Youthful wit [youmin 幼敏] 1 236–237 Prodigality and extravagance 2 176–177 Utility and capacity [qiliang 氣量] 2 [shechi 奢侈] 178–184 Civil service examinations 7 238 Cunning and scheming 1 [gongju 貢舉] [guizha 詭詐] 185–186 Assessment and appointment 2 239–241 Flattering and fawning 3 [quanxuan 銓選] [yaoning 謠佞] 187 Duties and officials [zhiguan 職官] 1 242 Fallacies and errors [miuwu 謬誤] 1 188 Sycophants authority 1 243 Making a living [zhisheng 治生] 1 [quanxing 權倖] 244 Mean and brusque [bianji 褊急] 1 189–190 Commanders and marshals 2 245–252 Jocularity [huixie 恢諧] 8 [jiangshuai 將帥] 253–257 Derision [chaoqiao 嘲誚] 5 191–192 Bravery [xiaoyong 驍勇] 2 258–262 Contempt for rudeness [chibi 嗤鄙] 5 193–196 Chivalry [haoxia 豪俠] 4 263–264 Rascals [wulai 無賴] 2 197 Encyclopaedic knowledge 1 265–266 Arrogance and frivolity 2 [bowu 博物] [qingbo 輕薄] 198–200 Literary compositions 3 267–269 Cruelty and violence [canbao 殘暴] 3 [wenzhang 文章] 270–273 Women [furen 婦人] 4 201 Fame for talent [caiming 才名] 1 274 Feelings and emotions 1 202 Behavior of Confucian scholars 1 [qinggan 情感] [ruxing 儒行] 275 Child servants [tongpu 童僕] 1 203–205 Music [yue 樂] 3 480–483 Barbarian peoples [manyi 蠻夷] 4 206–209 Writing [shu 書] 4 493–500 Miscellaneous jottings [zaji 雜記] 8 210–214 Delineation [hua 畫] 5 Total Number of Juan 115 vary from one to one in style and subject matter. Included in it are not only tales dealing with grotesque spirits and divine responses such as “A Nightly Encounter with Un- canny Spirits in Dongyang,” “Music from the Nether World,” and “Story of Divine Responses” which, as a whole, hardly display any difference in theme and content from zhiguai entries, but also such chuanqi stories as “Story of Li Wa,” “Story of Fei- yan,” and “Story of Yingying,” which contain no supernatural elements. The arrangement of thematically and stylistically different items into the same group categorized as “miscellaneous and anecdotal biographies” shows that there is lack in TPGJ of con- sistence and uniformity in xiaoshuo classification, and also ignorance on the part of its compilers of the rise in the Tang dynasty of a new genre of fictional narrative which is now comfortably referred to as chuanqi for its flamboyant tone, sensuous language, elaborate narrative, rich descriptions, ornate style, and fundamental interest in human character.

8 Table 6: Miscellaneous and Anecdotes Biographies Juan No. Tale Category No. of Juan 484 Li Wa zhuan 李娃傳 [Story of Li Wa] 1 485 Dongcheng laofu zhuan 東城老父傳 [Story of An Old Man in Dongcheng] 1 Liushi zhuan 柳氏傳 [Story of Lady Liu] 486 Changhen zhuan 長恨傳 [Song of Everlasting Sorrow] 1 Wushuan zhuan 無雙傳 [Wushuang the Peerless] 487 Huo Xiaoyu zhuan 霍小玉傳 [Prince Huo’s Daughter] 1 488 Yingying zhuan 鶯鶯傳 [Story of Yingying] 1 489 Zhou qin xingji 周秦行記 [A Journey through Zhou and Qin Times] 1 Mingyin lu 冥音錄 [Music from the Nether World] 490 Dongyang yiguai lu 東陽夜怪錄 1 [A Nightly Encounter with Uncanny Spirits in Dongyang] 491 Xie Xiao’e zhuan 謝小娥傳 [Story of Xie Xiao’e] 1 Yangchang zhuan 楊娼傳 [Story of Yang the Prostitute] Feiyan zhuan 飛煙傳 [Story of Feiyan] 492 Lingying zhuan 靈應傳 [Story of Divine Responses] 1 Total Number of Juan 9

Xiaoshuo Culture and Conception “A careful study of what is included and excluded,” as observed by Haeger in his study of the origins of TPYL, “could reveal a lot about the contemporary state of Chi- nese culture, about the priorities and values of tenth century scholars, and even about the structure of medieval knowledge.”53) The same can be safely said of TPGJ, as xiaoshuo classification in it reflects the social-cultural background of the time against which xiaoshuo was conceived and received. In respect of state ideologies and religions, Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism had co-existed with each other since the Han dynasty. As a native religion, Daoism had never been short of believers and followers in imperial China. Confucianism, after a decline during the Six Dynasties, revived and regained its dominant position over other schools of thought in most of Tang and Song times. Buddhism, although originally a foreign religion from India, had by the end of the Six Dynasties success- fully integrated with Chinese culture and been assimilated and eventually accepted as a domestic religion. Adherents of the three religions or teachings used the tale as a tool to promote their own claims and to expose the pretensions of their rivals in their struggle for support and survival, which gave rise to a persistent prosperity of religious literature in early and early medieval China. The Six Dynasties was a time when China underwent frequent dynastic changes. With the fall of the Han dynasty, the dominant position Confucianism had enjoyed over any other school of thought or religion since Emperor Wu (r. 140–87 BCE) of the Han 漢武帝 was challenged by Daoist and Buddhist doctrines, and undermined by various Daoist-related shamanistic and superstitious beliefs and practices. It is by no accident that there appeared dozens of zhigui works during this period of time. Ac- counts of the strange and supernatural were first circulated orally, and then recorded and read as real happenings by people from various walks of life ranging from royalty and aristocrats to literati scholars and commoners. Towards the end of the seventh century, however, “some fundamental changes take place in the way xiaoshuo is told

9 and written” and “there evolved a receptivity to genuine fictional creation,”54) as illus- trated in the more fleshed chuanqi stories of the Tang. With the focus shifted from the spirit world to the world of men, factual accounts of anomalies gave way to fictional narratives about human life and love, the significance of which, unfortunately, was completely ignored, let alone properly acknowledged, by the compilers of TPGJ, as evidenced by the fact that stories of this type are mostly placed in the last category of xiaoshuo but one in TPGJ. As the largest collection of tales from ancient China, TPGJ has been acclaimed as “a deep see of xiaoshuo” (xiaoshuo zhi yuanhai 小說之淵海).55) The collection of such a large number of items dating from pre-Qin to early Song times and the classification of them first into ninety-two general categories and further into more than 150 sub- categories greatly extend the scope of xiaoshuo to include “all petty tales or talks, fictional or factual, narrative or expository, which are meant for entertainment, edification, and explanation of social, natural or supernatural beings and happenings.”56) This conception of xiaoshuo remained largely unchanged until towards the end of the nineteenth century when Western theories of fiction and fictional works were introduced in China. There is no denying the unique contribution TPGJ has made to Chinese literature. Equally undeniable, however, are some problems with the compilation and classification of this anthology. For example, there are quite a few entries quoted without any mention of their sources, some source information provided is inaccurate, ambiguous and even misleading, and there are occasionally arbitrary alterations to the wording of entry titles and text.57) However, “one flaw cannot mar the jade,” as the Chinese say- ing goes. In terms of the classificatory scheme developed to categorize such a great number of xiaoshuo items on such a wide range of subject matter, TPGJ is second to none in the history of Chinese and world literature.

Notes 1) This study was graciously supported by the University of Otago Research Grant (UORG) 2007. My thanks first go to Professor Brian Moloughney of the University of Victoria at Wellington for his com- ments on a very early version of this article, which, after being revised, was presented at the 34th AULLA Congress, February 4–7, 2007, in Sydney, and at the 12th Asian Studies Conference Japan, June 21–23, 2008, in Tokyo. I have benefited greatly from the feedback received at these two confer- ences from the audience, to whom I am also very thankful. I am particularly grateful to Professor Hidemi Tokura of Tokyo University for her insightful suggestions, which have been incorporated in this much enlarged and revised version. Needless to say, all errors that remain are my alone. 2) The Song dynasty is conventionally divided into the Northern Song 北宋 (960–1127) and the South- ern Song 南宋 (1127–1279) with the former having its capital in Kaifeng 開封 and the latter in Lin’an 臨安, present-day Hanzhou. 3) An earlier attempt at xiaoshuo classification was made from a historiographical point of view by Liu Zhiji 劉知幾 (661–721), who categorised xiaoshuo as belonging to zashi 雜史 (anecdotal history) in dis- tinction from zhengshi 正史 (official dynastic history) and divided xiaoshuo into ten schools. See Liu Zhiji, Shitong tongshi 史通通釋, Pu Qilong 浦起籠 annot., (1978, Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1982), 10.273–281. 4) The term chuanqi, which literarily means stories transmitting the marvellous, was first used by the Tang writer Pei Xing 裴鉶 (825–880) as a title for a collection of his tales, and later was employed to denote the Song-Jin 金 (1115–1234) zhugongdiao 諸宮調 (potpourri), the Yuan zaju 雜居 (variety plays), and the Ming nanxi 南戲 (southern drama). It was not until Hu Yinglin categorized chuanqi as one of

10 the six subtypes of xiaoshuo that the word was first firmly established as a generic term for a form of literary narrative, as contrasted with the short and scanty zhiguai. 5) Hu Yinglin, Shaoshi shanfang bicong 少室山房筆叢, (1958, Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1964), 29.374. 6) Carrie E. Reed, “Motivation and Meaning of a “Hodge-podge”: Duan Chenshi’s ‘Youyang zazu,’” Journal of the American Oriental Society 123:1 ( January–March 2003), 121–145, at 121. 7) Y. W. Ma, “Pi-chi,” in William H. Nienhauser, Jr. et al. eds. & comps., The Indiana Companion to Tradi- tional Chinese Literature, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986), 651. 8) Wang Guowei 王國維 (1877–1927), Wang Guowei yishu 王國維遺書, in Jingan wenji xubian 靜安文集續編, (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1983), 5:70. 9) Chen Yinke, “Deng Guangming Songshi zhiguan kaozheng xu” 鄧廣銘宋史職官考證序, in Jinming guan conggao erbian 金明館叢稿二編, (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1980), 245. 10) Jacques Gernet, A History of Chinese Civilization (second edition), J. R. Forster and Charles Hartman trans., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 297–298. 11) The ci poetry is a form of lyrics written to certain tunes with strict tonal patterns and rhyme schemes and in fixed number of lines and words, originating under the Tang and maturing during the Song, which, as evidenced by the Zhonghua shuju 1965 edition of the Quan Song ci 全宋詞, produced nearly 20,000 ci poems by over 1,300 writers, almost seven times as many as those included in the Zhonghua shuju 1999 edition of the Quan Tang Wudai ci 全唐五代詞. Even in the composition of the shi 詩 poetry, for which the Tang Dynasty is best known, the Tang is greatly outnumbered by the Song, which produced more than 200,000 shi poems by nearly 10,000 writers over a span of 319 years of dynastic history, as shown in the 72-volume modern edition of Quan Song shi 全宋詩 published by Beijing daxue chubanshe in 1998. 12) The word “huaben,” which literarily means “story-telling basis,” refers to a literary genre of narrative written in the vernacular in Song and Yuan times. For an annotated list of huaben fictional works of the Song, see Hu Shiying 胡士瑩, Huaben xiaoshuo gailun 話本小說槪論, (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 235–266. 13) For a bibliographical study of xiaoshuo, see Xiaohuan Zhao, “Xiaoshuo as a Cataloguing Term in Tradi- tional Chinese Bibliography,” Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies 5:2 (October 2005), 157–181. 14) The Tang dynasty was a time when the genre of xiaoshuo writing matured as marked by the appearance of chuanqi stories, but Song writers produced more, if not better, xiaoshuo works than their Tang counterparts, as noted by Li Jian’guo 李劍國 in the preface to his Songdai zhiguai chuanqi xulu 宋代志怪傳奇敘錄, (Tianjin: Nankai daxue chubanshe, 2000), 2. In the Zhognguo wenyan xiaoshuo zongmu ti- yao 中國文言小說提要, ( Jinan: Qilu shushe, 1996), Ning Jiayu 寧稼雨 gives a total of 337 titles of xiaoshuo which are ascribable to Song writers, as compared with 291 to Tang writers. 15) Zhou Zhenfu 周振甫, Zhougguo wenzhangxue shi 中國文章學史, (Nanjing: Jiangsu jiaoyu chubanshe, 2006), 214–215. 16) A good example of this is that among the Tang-Song eight great ancient-style prose masters listed by the Ming scholar Mao Kun 茅坤 (1512–1601) in his influential Tang-Song ba da jia wenchao 唐宋八大家文鈔, all except Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan are Song writers; they are Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (1007– 1072), Wang Anshi 王安石 (1021–1086), Zeng Gong 曾鞏 (1019–1083), and the famous “Three Sus” (San Su 三蘇)—Su Xun 蘇洵 (1009–1066) and his two sons, Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101) and Su Che 蘇轍 (1039–1112). 17) The San guan, which refers to the Institute of the Glorification of Literature (zhaowen guan 昭文館), the Institute of Historiography (shiguan 史館), and the Assembly of Scholars ( jixian guan 集賢館), were first set up under the Tang dynasty to collect, compile and publish Confucian classics, Buddhist and Taoist scriptures and other works of academic and didactic value. 18) The San guan were relocated and reorganized in the third year of the Taiping era (978) into the newly established Institute in Honor of Literature (Chongwen yuan 崇文院) under the imperial edict of Em- peror Taizong. In the first year of the era of Duangong 端拱 (988) of Emperor Taizong’s reign, the Institute in Honor of Literature was further expanded to include the Privy Gallery, hence the so- called imperial library system of the Song known as “the Three Institutes and One Gallery” (Sanguan yige 三館一閣). For a general introduction of the Guan ge system under the Song, see Fu Xuanzong 傅璇琮 and Xie Zhuohua 謝灼華 eds., “Songdai guojia tushuguan—guan ge” 宋代國家圖書館―館閣,

11 in Zhongguo cangshu tongshi 中國藏書通史, (Ningbo: Ningbo chubanshe, 2001), 303–309. For a detailed historical record, see Chen Ju 程俱 (1078–1144), Lintai gushi jiaozheng 麟臺故事校證, Zhang Fuxiang 張富祥 ed. & annot., (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2000), 1.1–40. For a detailed study of the role of this Guan ge system in book collection, collation, compilation and publication during the Song, see Li Gen 李更, Songdai guange jiaokan yanjiu 宋代館閣校勘硏究, (Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 2006). For a monographic study of this system in relation to the intellectual and literary activities of the Song, see Chen Yuanfeng 陳元鋒, Bei Song guan ge hanyuan yu shitan yanjiu 北宋館閣翰苑與詩壇硏究, (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2005). 19) The Guozi jian, as the most prestigious institute of learning in imperial China, originated from the Taixue 太學 (Grand School) in Han times, and was known variously as “Guaozi xue” 國子學 (Direc- torate of Education for National Youth) during the Jin 晉 dynasty (265–367) and as “Guozi si” 國子寺 (Temple of Education for National Youth) under the Northern Qi 北齊 (550–577) of the Southern and Northern Dynasties 南北朝 (420–589) before being changed to this name when China was reunited by the Sui 隋 dynasty (581–618). For more about the Guozi jian, see Thomas H. C. Lee, Education in Traditional China: A History, (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 41–104. 20) Glen Dudbridge, The Panizzi Lectures 1999: Lost Books of Medieval China, (London: The British Library, 2000), 1. For a monographic study of publishing history of the Song dynasty, see Zhou Baorong 周寶榮, Songdai chubanshi yanjiu 宋代出版史硏究, (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou guji chubanshe, 2003). 21) For a general account of the development of woodblock printing technology during the Song dynasty, see Ozaki Yasushi 尾崎康, “Songdai diaoban yinshua de fazhan” 宋代雕版印刷的發展, Gugong xueshu jikan 故宮學術集刊, 20:4 (Summer 2003), 167–190. For an insightful analysis of the relations between printing and prosperity in culture during the Song, see L. Carrington Goodrich, “The Devel- opment of Printing in China and Its Effect of the Renaissance under the Song Dynasty (960–1279),” Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, (Hong Kong Branch), 3 (1963), 36–43. 22) For a comprehensive study of book circulation, collation and compilation in Song times, see Susan Cherniack, “Book Culture and Textual Transmission in Sung China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 54:1 ( June 1994), 5–125. 23) Dudbridge, op. cit., 2. 24) Xu Song 徐松 (1781–1848) comp., Song hui yao jigao 宋會要輯稿, (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1957), 75:28.2972. 25) Wang Mingqing 王明清 (1127–ca. 1215), Huizhu houlu 揮麈後錄, in Songyuan biji xiaoshuo daguan 宋元筆記小說大觀, (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2007), 1.3616. 26) Johannes L. Kurz, “The Politics of Collecting Knowledge: Song Taizong’s Compilations Project,” T’oung Pao, 87:4/5 (2001), 289–316, at 291. 27) It is worth mentioning here, however, that the bibliographic section of the Songshi, as indicated in the preface, was primarily based on the dynastic histories of the Song known as the Guoshi 國史, which have come down to us in four successive parts entitled “Sanchao guoshi” 三朝國史, “Liangchao guoshi” 兩朝國史, “Sichao guoshi” 四朝國史, and “Zhongxing sichao guoshi” 中興四朝國史, respec- tively. Many of the titles in the bibliographical sections of the ﬁrst three Guoshi were duplicated in that of the Zongxing sichao guoshi, which was largely incorporated into the bibliographic section of the Songshi due to the carelessness of its editors. For a critical review of the bibliographical sections of the four Guoshi and the Songshi, see Piet van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Period: A Critical Study and Index, (London: Ithaca Press, 1984), 4–6, 10–15, 18–23. 28) A total of forty-eight titles are listed as leishu in the bibliographical monograph of the Tangshu 唐書, and according to the Southern Song scholar Wang Yinglin 王應麟 (1223–1296), during the Tang dynasty, there came out only “twenty-four leishu in a total of 7,288 juan from seventeen schools.” For this note, see Wang Yinglin, Yu hai 玉海, (Taibei: Hualian chubanshe, 1964), 54.1071. 29) TPGJ shows substantial differences from TPYL in terms of source materials, but the inﬂuential North- ern Song scholar Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 (1104–1162) mistakenly refers to TPGJ in the Jiaochou 校雠略 section of his Tongzhi 通志 as a book derived from TPYL, as noted in Ji Yun 紀昀 (1724–1805) et al. comps., the Qinding Siku quanshuo zhongmu 欽定四庫全書總目, (1789, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997 revised ed.), 142.1882. Based on a close evidential study of the textual quality of three entries in TPGJ about “the Four Gentlemen of Liang” taken from the Liang si gong ji 梁四公記 against that of

12 eight items in TPYL which also lists the Liang si gong ji as the source book, Glen Dudbridge comes to the conclusion that “TPYL compilers did their work independently of TPGJ.” For this note, see Dudbridge, op. cit., 55. 30) Li Fang, “Taiping guangji biao” 太平廣記表, TPGJ, (981; 1566; Zhonghua shuju, 1961), 1–2. 31) The Tower of Supreme Purity was built in the fourth year of the era of Taiping (979) to house hand- written copies of books transferred to Kaifeng under the imperial decree of Emperors Taizu and Taizong from the libraries of the recently annexed southern states, especially from the palace library of the Southern Tang. For this note, see Wang Yinglin, op. cit., 54.1076. 32) Little is known to us about Zhang Bangji’s life except that during his sojourn in Yangzhou in the first year of the Jianyan 建炎 era (1127), he lived a life of leisure reading TPGJ for fun, as recorded in his Mozhuang manlu, (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2002), 2.56. 33) See Luo Ye, “Shegeng xuyu” 舌耕敘語, in Ding Xigen 丁錫根 ed., Zhongguo gudai xiaoshuo xu ba ji 中國古代小說序跋集, (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1996), 586. 34) Wang Yaocyhen, CWZM, (Taibei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1968), 3.174. Forty-six titles in total of 4,650 juan are listed in CWZM as leishu with TPGJ being one of them. 35) Chen Zhensun, ZZSLJT, (Taibei: Guangwen shuju, 1968), 11.705. 36) Nothing is known about Can Fan except that he is recorded in JZDSZ as the compiler of the two collections of tales. For this record, see Chao Gongwu, JZDSZ, (Taibei: Guangwen shuju, 1967), 13.770– 771. 37) For this note, see Tan Kai, preface, TPGJ, in Li Fang et al. comps., op. cit., 1. 38) For more about the circulation and textual history of TPGJ, see Zhang Guofeng 張國風, Taiping guangji banben kaoshu 太平廣記版本考述, (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2004), 6–10, 14–39. 39) Ji Yun et al. comps., op. cit., 142.1883. 40) For a detailed evidential study of the works cited in TPGJ, see Lu Jintang 廬錦堂, Taiping guangji yin- shu kao 太平廣記引書考, (Taibei: Huamulan wenhua chubanshe, 2006). 41) FYZL, which was compiled by Monk Daoshi 道世 (ca. 600–683) of the Tang dynasty, is the largest and most important Buddhist leishu that has come down to us in entirety. The whole text is divided into 100 pian 篇 (chapters), which are further divided into 680 plus bu 部 (sections). For each section, there is a heading to indicate the central message of the quotations and commentaries by the compiler. Chapters vary in size and stratification, and in general, the more complex and central the topic is to Buddhism, the more sections and subsections there will be, and vice versa. 42) The Xinxu and the Shuoyuan are conventionally catalogued as Confucian works in traditional Chinese bibliography, as in the Hanshu yiwenzhi 漢書藝文志 (hereafter as HSYWZ) and the Suishu jingjizhi 隋書經籍志 (hereafter as SSJJZ), due to their overtly expressed Confucian values and attitudes towards moral and political issues. Not until the Tang dynasty were they recognized as xiaoshuo for their “extensive fictionalization and excessive fabrication” (guang cheng xu shi duo gou wei ci 廣陳虛事多構僞辭). For the above-quoted comment, see Liu Zhiji, op. cit., 18.516. 43) Although the Soushen ji failed to survive in entirety beyond the Song dynasty, it is still inferable from its fragments preserved in leishu such as FYZL that xiaoshuo items in the original text were thematically organized into distinctive sections with headings like Shenhua 神化 (deification), Bianhua 變化 (transfiguration), Ganying 感應 (divine responses), and Yaoguai 妖怪 (uncanny grotesques) and that there was also a brief summary at the beginning of each section of the contents of the tales included in it. For this note, see Li Jianguo, Tang qian zhiguai xiaoshuo shi 唐前志怪小說史, (Tianjian: Tianjin jiaoyu chubanshe, 2005 revised ed.), 299–300. For more about the supposed remnant topical headings and discursive introductions, see Morino Shigeo 森野繁夫, “So¯shinki no henmoku” 搜神記の篇目, Hiroshima Daigaku bungaku-bu kiyo¯ 廣島大學文學部紀要, 24:3 (1965), 161–172. 44) The Youyang zazu is most known for its extremely great variety of subject matter and the mixing of styles. The most complete text that is available to us is the modern punctuated Zhonghua shuju 1981 edition, which contains 1,288 items, more than half of which are found quoted “in more than one hundred and fifty-two” of the 500 juan text of TPGJ, “far more than selections from Soushen ji or any other work.” For this observation, see Carrie E. Reed, op. cit., 124–125. 45) In TPGJ, only juan 164–202 and juan 235–275 contain narrative items about men and the world, which are generally categorized as zhiren tales.

13 46) In translating the section and subsection titles of TPGJ, I consult Edward H. Schafer, “The Table of Contents of the T’ai-p’ing kuang chi,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), 2:2 ( July 1980), 258–263. 47) There is no mention of this title in HSYWZ. The earliest bibliographical record of the Liexian zhuan appears in the Za zhuan 雜傳 section of the Shibu 史部 Division in SSJJZ with Liu Xiang given as the author. Records of it are also found in bibliographical sections of later dynastic histories such as the Jiu Tang shu 舊唐書, the Tang shu 唐書 and the Song shi 宋史, and in Song catalogue books of imperial and private holdings such as the CWZM and JZDSZ. It is worth noting that since the influential northern Song calligrapher Huang Bosi 黃伯思 (1079–1118) dated the text later than the Western Han dynasty, Liu Xiang’s authorship has been called into question, but as noted by Robert Campany, contemporary scholars as represented by Kaltenmark and Li Jianguo have cogently argued for the traditional attribution of the authorship to Liu Xiang. See Robert Campany, Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China, (New York: State University of New York Press, 1996), 40–41. For more discussions about the authorship and textual history of the Liexian zhuan, see Li Jianguo (2005), 167–173. 48) The Shenxian zhuan is a collection of 84 immortals with the text traditionally attributed to the Daoist master Ge Hong 葛洪 (283–343), who is better known as the author of the Baopu zi 抱朴子. For a most comprehensive study of the Shenxian zhuan in English, see Robert Ford Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents, (Berke- ley: University of California Press, 2002). 49) Patricia Buckely Ebrey, China: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Com- pany, 2006), 35. 50) Catherine Despeux, “Women in Daoism,” Livia Kohn trans., in Livia Kohn ed., Daoism Handbook, (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 401. 51) Xiao Dengfu 蕭登福, Daojia daojiao yu zhongtu fojiao chuqi jingyi fazhan 道家道教與中土佛教初期經義發展, (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2003), 127–144. 52) The Lieyi ji, alternatively known as the Liyi zhuan 列異傳, is the first important zhigua work in the history of Chinese literature, which is conventionally attributed to Cao Pi 曹丕 (187–226), Emperor Wen of the Wei 魏文帝 (r. 220–226). The Soushen houji is recorded in SSJJZ which credits Tao Qian 陶潛 (365–427) with the authorship. For a brief textual and thematic study of these two zhiguai works, see Xiaohuan Zhao, Classical Chinese Supernatural Fiction: A Morphological History, (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005), 48–56. 53) John Winthrop Haeger, “The Significance of Confusion: The Origins of the T’ai-p’iing Yü-lan,” Jour- nal of the American Oriental Society, 88:3 ( July–September 1968), 401–410, at 401. 54) Victor H. Mair, “The Narrative Revolution in Chinese Literature: Ontological Presuppositions,” Chi- nese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), 5:1–2 ( July 1983), 1–27, at 25, 27. 55) Ji Yun et al. comps., op. cit., 142.1882. 56) Xiaohuan Zhao, (October, 2005), 172. 57) For a more detailed discussion of the editorial problems with TPGJ, see Ye Qingbing 葉慶炳, “You- guan TPGJ de jige wenti” 有關太平廣記的幾個問題, in Ke Qingming 柯慶明 and Lin Mingde 林明德 eds., Zhongguo gudian wenxue congkan: Xiaoshuo zhibu er 中國古典文學叢刊：小說之部二, (Taibei: Juliu tushu gongsi, 1977), 11–44.